Week One Grades, Evaluations, Questions

Week one is in the books and now we take a look at how the entire team fared against the Dolphins. It was a contest of highs and lows, but we will try to make some sense of it all as BBQ hands out some grades and evaluations. Feel free to offer your own grades, evaluations, and opinions. Also, we have some questions to close out week one.

Let’s take a look at the grades.

Quarterbacks:
Kirk Cousins got the start and played the entire game. He looked tentative at times and was able to make the occasional play with his movement and passing. One poor interception nearly resulted in a pick six, but it should be noted that losing a key receiver early in the game hampered the offense.
Grade: C

Running Backs:
Alfred Morris was spectacular and started the season with a 100 yard game. Matt Jones displayed flashes of speed and breaking tackles with ease.
Grade: A

Wide Receivers:
DeSean Jackson went down on the first play of the second series, but Pierre Garcon stepped up and was able to take some sting out of losing the top receiver. Andre Roberts struggled and the rest of the receiving corps was less than impressive.
Grade: C

Tight Ends:
The loss of Niles Paul and Logan Paulsen seemed as if it would doom this position. Jordan Reed had a great first game and Derek Carrier provided some good moments as well.
Grade: B+

Offensive Line:
An excellent first game for the entire unit, especially the right side. Ndamukong Suh was held to two tackles and zero sacks on Sunday. The running game enjoyed massively-sized lanes in which to gain significant yardage.
Grade: A+

Defensive Line:
The defensive line mirrors what the offensive line was able to accomplish, but on a less noticeable scale. They were active in four and three man fronts. The running game was shut down and the unit was responsible for a sack and recovered fumble that went for a thirty-eight yard loss.
Grade: A

Linebackers:
Ryan Kerrigan was reportedly upset with his play, but BBQ can’t find too much fault with what this group did on Sunday - sans the easy interception for Keenan Robinson. The run game was stifled and the quarterback felt heat for much of the game. Hustling by Preston Smith resulted in the aforementioned thirty-eight yard loss/fumble recovery and you could almost hear Yakaty Sax playing in the background.
Grade: A-

Cornerbacks:
Grit and determination describes the play of DeAngelo Hall while Chris Culliver was solid. There was an easy pick six opportunity for Culliver and David Amerson was weak in relief of Hall for a period of time.
Grade: B-

Safeties:
A solid outing by Goldson, Trenton Robinson, and Duke Ihenacho was overshadowed by a season ending injury. The safeties allowed no long passes on Sunday.
Grade: A

Special Teams:
Tress Way had his usual game of producing long punts, but they were lacking hang time. Kai Forbath continued his woes beyond forty-five yards and was very weak on kickoffs. He paid the price this week. The return unit was good on punt returns and one lone kickoff. They made no glaring mistakes. Coverage was stymied by poor kicking quality.
Grade: D-

Coaching:
The offense was good in the running game, but struggled with passing. Part of that could be attributed to the DeSean Jackson injury. At times, the offense needed to pass in certain situations and it seemed as if the coaches were engaged in polyphasic sleep. Defense was absolutely solid and Joe Barry gets high marks for his entire unit. Special teams let the team down again and sputtered at the most inopportune moments.
Grade: B-

How would you grade each position and the coaching staff? Do you like the new defensive coordinator thus far? How in the world can we fix special teams? Are you encouraged by the kicking change? How did you like the play of our offensive line? On to game two.

December 4, 2017
Head Coach Jay Gruden
On if thereâ€™s hope for TE Jordan Reed to return:
â€śThereâ€™s always hope [laughter]â€¦ Iâ€™ll leave that to the trainers and Jordan. Weâ€™ll see how he does.â€ť
...